More Cricket stuff

I have told you before I have developed an obsession for cricket. Especially spin bowling. Well I discovered another spiritual "idea" in my cricket education.

Just so you know, I look for spiritual insight and truth everywhere, and with everything I do. This is not because I am a saint, but rather because if I can get some spiritual truth out of it, I might be able to convince my wife that it is important to let me go play cricket once a week :)

Well in spin bowling the object is to spin the ball very hard, and when it bounces in front of the batsman, the spin will effect the direction and height of the bounce. If you spin it hard enough it will also tend to move in the air a bit as well.

Well what I have been doing for the last three months is learning to bowl wrist spinners. But I have been working on landing the ball in the right spot, which is necessary obviously. The problem is I have sacrificed a lot of the violent spin on the ball to get more precise. Instead of concentrating on learning to rip a spin on the ball, I have been trying to have better direction. And then I read a book.

This book explained that if I really rip into a spin I will be pretty inaccurate. The ball will spray all over, but all I should be concerned with now is to spin it as hard as I can. Once I can spin it violently in four main ways, then I should try to get more accurate, but never sacrificing the spin. If I can land the ball in the right place but it doesn't spin much, I am just tossing up batting practice. But if I can keep all of my spin, and figure out how to land that where I want it, I become a very difficult bowler.

Well this is my thought:

We often spend so much time as a church focused on theology, what you should believe. The four spiritual laws and so forth. We talk so much about how you should behave as a Christian, how much you should read your bible and pray, and even what music you should listen to, or what tv you should watch. We are trying to be precise. Trying to land our lives in the right spot.

But shouldn't we rather try as hard as we can to follow Jesus? To put him first and foremost in our thoughts and actions. To try and learn as much as we can about Him, read His story, recite His words? Shouldn't we pour ourselves with reckless abandon into relationship with the living God, and from this proper life, then try to make some sense of things?

I think we often use our quest for accuracy, to lesson the effect of Jesus. Often the youngest Christians can explain why Jesus didn't mean for us to really "sell all of your belongings, give it to the poor and follow me". They can explain why their church is right and others are wrong. They can often tell you all the do's and don'ts. But do they really know Jesus? Do we really know Jesus?

And does that make us vulnerable to getting knocked around by life?

The kingdom of heaven is like cricket, if you have a little imagination :)

the rev